Saturday, August 17. Spent an uneventful Saturday today; cleaned cabinets and drawers and dishes, figured out where to put all of the appliances on my tiny counter, and where to store the giant bed box so it’s out of the way. Made black beans & herbed rice with capers and canned tomatoes; steamed broccoli and beets and butternut squash. Once I get more money in my account (all of my money will be gone once I pay Brian and Leonie), will start a container garden on my porch – Leonie’s garden is beautiful, and compost has got to turn over fast in this heat (would love a composter; perhaps I’ll bring one back in my luggage next January). Filled up my car and my tires, but forgot the attachment to fill up my exercise ball (the exercise ball was a running gag when I was here before – it went everywhere with me, and my friends always planned on stopping at the gas station to fill it, but somehow it never happened). Went to school, thinking that I could email Kevin – ghost town; everything locked up. Only person on campus besides me was the security guard at the gate. So I hiked down the “stairway to the sea” and sat a while on the “porch swing” by the shore, staring out over the calm, clear Caribbean. Affixed a flip-flop sole I found to the broken wind chimes hanging in the gazebo with a piece of wire; listened to the wind chimes when the afternoon breeze started up. Went home; Brian and Leonie were out, so I broke down all of the boxes. Breaking down the very last box, I found the Winslow Kevin drew for me – HONK! Hurray! (For the uninitiated: read Phil Foglio’s The Galimaufry series in the Buck Godot comic. Terrifically enjoyable, funny, complex read, with Phil’s trademark wry wit.) Borrowed a vice-grip from Richard (my neighbor in the two-bedroom apartment) and installed the shower head Kevin sent me in May – yay! I think I’ll enjoy tonight’s shower. (Hmmm… missing a rubber gasket. I hate it when “complete installation kits” lack important parts. The water all gushes out of the handle; am going to have to look all over town for a business that has the right gasket – St. Kitts is like that.) Collected dead millipedes from the driveway (there are a shocking number of them) to feed to the hungry fish in the pond on campus tomorrow, but then Leonie told me that they taste bad – none of the animals here eat them, except the centipedes. Oh – Leonie told me the centipedes here don’t get as long as they do in South America, where they’re from – only about 6 inches! She also told me that the only bite she ever received felt like a pin-prick, and nothing more. Perhaps, because I don’t react to mosquito bites or bee stings, centipede bites won’t be as awful for me as the school nurses have tried to scare us into believing. I think I’ll do my best to avoid finding out. I think I’ll wash my car, pack a lunch, and go snorkeling tomorrow, since everything in town will be closed. Maybe I’ll drive over to turtle bay and check out the snorkeling there, since I hear it’s great.

The evening chorus of piper frogs has started; sunset was, as usual, exquisite. The air is already cooling down (joy). I think I’ll drink some tea and mess around in iTunes, waste the evening hours until it’s time for bed. Evenings are the hardest times – there’s really nothing for me to do to keep away from my thoughts, and they go around and around and around in my head. Missing Kevin, worrying about Mom, worrying about school… at least, once school starts, I know what I’ll be doing in the evenings – STUDYING!